What is Obama thinking?

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McCrystle will get what he needs from the combination of the U.S. rampup and additional allied forces (particularly British forces) that we have requested.  On top of that, generals are like any other people in a bargaining situation; they always ask for more than they need so they can get what they need.

So the two questions here are: why are we in Afghanistan and why do we have such a short timeline for stabilization and training of Afghan forces?

Well, I doubt you conservatives would be asking "why are we in Afghanistan?" if a Republican were in the oval office.  But, since you asked: There was this event called 9/11, remember?, when we got hit by al Qaeda forces that were welcomed and protected by a Taliban government.  The Taliban have been staging a strong resurgence there for the past year, and if we left, they threaten to take back power, and guess who is coming back to dinner with them?  For however lousy the Karzai government is, it is not the Taliban.  We've got to prevent a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, keep the main body of al Qaeda forces in Pakistan's NWFP, and throw support to the Pakistani government to go after them.   If they're stuck between a rock and a hard place, they won't have such an easy time attacking us.  Failing to do this imperils our own national security, just in case you happen to care about that.

Why do we have such a short timetable?  Because the reality is that we can't keep 10% of our active duty military over there forever, and declaring a timetable puts the Afghan government and citizens on notice that they have eighteen months to man up, get their act together and fight for their own security or risk falling back into the Taliban tyranny and losing whatever progress, however halting, has been gained over the last eight years.  

In other words, you've got the requested troop levels, a defined mission with clear goals and the stakes laid on the table for the Afghan government and people.  From a menu of crappy options, this is not a bad choice.  For liberals who oppose it, sometimes we have to fight wars that are not very pleasant and are dangerous.  For conservatives who oppose it, sometimes we have to maintain our resolve no matter which party the president happens to be aligned with.  To Americans generally, vote against the president in the next election if you see fit, but when he calls on the nation to do its duty, it should be done.  That's how our fathers and grandfathers handed us what we've got.